The Thane Police Crime Branch has caught a murder convict who was working at a shipyard Gujarat, taking advantage of the lack of background checks for manual labourers, after jumping parole.
According to Crime Branch officers, the convict, Vishwanath Yadav, was arrested in 2008 for murdering a Kalwa resident, Baban Shinde. Yadav had sought revenge on Shinde, who had murdered his friend in October 2008.
Yadav was subsequently arrested and in April 2012 was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Fresh complaint
In April 2013, Yadav, who was lodged in the Kolhapur Central Jail, got parole, officers said. When he failed to report back after it expired, prison authorities informed the Rabale police, in whose jurisdiction he was staying. The Rabale police, did not find him at his residence and registered a fresh complaint against him.
Earlier this week, the Unit I of the Thane Police Crime Branch received a tip off that he was staying in Bhavnagar in Gujarat.
“To verify the information, we sent a team along with our informant to Bhavnagar and kept a watch on a shipyard specified by the informant for a couple of days till Yadav was spotted. Inquiries with the shipyard revealed that he had not attempted to hide his identity and had given his real name while securing employment as a helper,” an officer who is part of the investigation said.
The Unit I team picked him up for inquiries and placed arrested him on Wednesday, after which he was brought to Thane.
He was later handed over to the Rabale police for further action.
No system in place
“Yadav told us that he was aware that a large number of manual labourers do not have bonafide identity papers with them but are still hired as contractors and employers are always on the lookout for cheap labour without asking too many questions. There is no system in place to find out whether a job seeker has a past criminal record or whether he is wanted in any case. He has further said that he managed to get a job at the shipyard within the hour by just telling his name and accepting the wages offered to him,” the officer said.
The Thane Crime Branch will be sending a report to the Gujarat police for reference, sources said.
